The concept of a nonmechanical, mass, random access, plated-wire memory has been validated in this phase of the continuing U.S. Air Force program. The memory model fabricated for this contract has 10,000,000-bit positions housing over 2.3 megabits of plated wire. Of these bits, 32,768 4-bit words have been exercised with a memory exerciser. The following characteristics of the plated-wire mass memory have been demonstrated: Nondestructive readout (NDRO); Selection in the bit dimension to minimize electronics costs; Simple mechanical plane configuration; Random access, and Electrical alterability. The final test of the plane revealed some defective areas which resulted from the large surface area. Making a smaller plane would easily eliminate this condition. All the objectives of the program have been achieved, including the projected production cost of less than $0.01 per bit. The contractor feels that as a result of this program, the building of a mass 1 x 10 to the 8th power-bit, random access, plated-wire memory is economically feasible and well within the state-of-the-art.
